[IAmGraydon]

It's amazing how far off the mark so many talented coders are when it comes to understanding the masses, how they think and what they want.

Guys...it's not that hard to do. Stop thinking so hard. Stop thinking you know a better way. CLONE REDDIT, just without the idiot running the place. It was working great until he screwed everything up.

[atoav]

Reddit the place was great, but it was because of the contributers and despite the system.

The network effect is hell of a drug. Most contributers are/were there, because it seemed like the most relevant place to put their information, and that was because of the other people on the platform, not because the system was particularily sophisticated or well designed.

Now the reddit design has the advantage that people already know it, but on the other hand if you change communities anyways why not try a new thing?

[cxr]

This goes for most "clones" that I see. What's baffling how many people set out to recreate something and then completely drop the ball on this part.

Worried that you'll lack a way to differentiate yourself from all the other clones? Well, don't be, because it's the same situation as with Android—every handset vendor seemed to think they couldn't possibly just take this free gift and ship it stock as-it-comes, since their competitors would come around eat their lunch! In reality, nobody else was doing that, so being unadulterated was a differentiator. This didn't seem to stop anyone, though, who all went on and poured enormous resources into the pursuit of an elusive value-add that in reality was more like value-addn't.

So, I agree: JUST CLONE THE THING.

(Still not convinced? Fine, try this instead: start working on a stealth clone right now, and then in 6 to 18 months when you've reached your goal and the real thing changes which makes everyone hate it, well then hey, look at you! You've got exactly what everyone wants. Alternatively, if you chance upon something that gets shuttered, go ahead and help yourself to the abandoned trademark, too. Trademark law is not like copyright law, after all; it doesn't last forever—only so long as there's someone willing to enforce it.)